


Recent Sins of Antiquity

by cynatnite



Series: The Barton Initiative [12]
Category: Bourne (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 09:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20673368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynatnite/pseuds/cynatnite
Summary: James and Sam have a talk about the old days in Iraq. Steve Rogers offers much needed advice to Brian who's doubting his place.Phil, Marta and Skye are putting more pieces together.





	Recent Sins of Antiquity

Since his brothers were determined to get him off the cigarettes, William James had taken to leaving the tower and hiding in the alley for a few minutes. It was still overwhelming, five brothers. Each unique and yet, the camaraderie was easy. He was already feeling close to them and wanted like hell to keep each one in his life no matter what.

It had been a day since the ops to the CIA and Sterisyn. James had spent the time wandering the city and spending time with Sam. At night, he whispered JT into the man’s ears and Sam hadn’t minded. He’d just smile and kiss James senseless.

This morning, everyone had enjoyed a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and a load of bagels that Tony Stark had delivered. Afterwards, James slipped away out onto the balcony. He’d been up a lot earlier than anyone had known.

James lit a smoke and would kick anyone’s ass if they tried to take it away. He wasn’t in the mood for their shit. The clear sky with the rising sun was starting to calm him.

He turned to see Sam join him.

“You here to lecture me for my own fucking good?” James asked.

“Nope.” Sam handed a cup of coffee over. “You were out of bed early.”

James’ nightmares weren’t the screaming kind. His eyes would open and he’d have to remember where he was. This one had him covered in sweat.

“Sorry, man.”

“Well, just don’t shoot me if I wake up crying like a baby,” Sam said with a hint of a smile.

“This thing with you and me,” James began. “Think it’ll take?”

“I’m hoping. Getting used to that ugly mug of yours when I walk in the room. You’re a fucking handful and that’s something I like, too.”

James nodded. He felt the same.

“I take the bus when it rains.”

“What?” Sam was taken aback by the statement.

“After my last tour, I got in my car. It was raining. Damn near jumped out of my skin when I turned the wipers on. Tried it a few times and so I get on the bus if I think it might sprinkle. Some fucking douche splashed mud on the window and I pulled over to wipe it off.”

“Jesus, Will. Why didn’t you say something?”

“I’m fucking useless, Sam. You need to know what you’re signing up for.”

James still had no idea how he even got into a fucking car as it was. He still remembered the sedan and enough material in the trunk to send them to Jesus and back. It was a nightmare to defuse. That was one of a million other nightmares he’d lived in those days.

“You’re the bravest man I know,” Sam said in a low voice. He shook his head and sighed. “I wanted you fucking dead when we first met because I was sure you were going to take us all with you. Then there’s this asshole who keeps me awake and gives me the first drink out of a Capri Sun. It didn’t take a genius to see that you’d risk your own ass first before you let anyone else die.”

“My next tour…” James took a long drag from the smoke. “I thought too damn much. It wasn’t like before. I’d bargain with God and tell the asshole that if he got me out, I’d do everything right once I got home. I’d go find out if you went and had a baby like you were talking about.”

“I thought you were dead.” Sam turned and looked at James. “That poor bastard with all that C4 covering his body and the locks keeping anyone from touching it, he blew up and I saw you go. Jesus, Will, all I could think was that I couldn’t lose you. I wanted a kid like you have and I wanted it with you.”

“Fuck,” James chuckled a little and wiped at the corner of his eye. “Listen to us baring our souls.”

“You get me. No one will ever be able to understand our shit and I think we’ll be okay.”

“Yeah,” James agreed.

Then Sam was kissing him for all it was worth. James loved how Sam put a hundred percent into him, as if he was making himself a part of James’ soul. That was when he knew he loved him even after being apart for so long.

Sam stepped back. “They’re going to think we’re upstairs fucking again if we don’t get back in there.”

“Best idea ever,” James grinned.

~*~

Brian had to admit that Jarvis was one hell of a system. The AI had scanned and organized the notes that Minnie had sent in no time at all. It’d been less than twelve hours and he had them on his phone.

He wasn’t ready to tell anyone what he had, even Jim. Street would get it, but Brian had no doubt his lover and live-in boyfriend would still feel a stab of disappointment. Hell, he disappointed himself at how all the bullshit from the past would still rear its ugly head.

_Just this one time_, Brian mentally repeated as he made his way out of Stark Tower. He’d read through the notes once, but he needed away from everyone and be in a place very unlike Clint and his brothers would go. It didn’t take long to find it.

The seedy bar wasn’t hard to find. It only took fifteen minutes to get there by subway. Raging punk rock blared from the door leading to the alley. Brian pushed his way inside, threw money on the bar and after ordering, he took the booth in the back corner.

While punked-out patrons raucously threw themselves around the place, played pool and made bets on how long one could let the palms of their hands burn the longest under a flame, Brian chomped on pretzels, drank beer and took his time reading through the notes left by a captain who obviously loved “his boys” as Minnie had told him a few years back.

He remembered the stories about these guys. Hell, they were damn near celebrities in the LAPD. They were revered and had more commendations than anyone. They also rebelled at corrupt authority, broke the rules and saved the day more times than most could count back in the day. This was the stuff heroes were made of.

Brian had to admire them himself. Hell, he wished he could have been tenth the cop they were when he was with the LAPD. These two particular cops were what everyone who put on a uniform wanted to be. He’d accepted the fact that was never going to be either of them on the first day of the Academy when they’d gotten the lecture about what being a cop means while looking at their photos.

The notes told as much information as it dared in case they ever saw the light of day. All names were initialized with the exception of unnamed informants. Brian recognized only a few of the initials and his own efforts at getting reports from other law enforcement agencies had failed. _No surprise there_, he thought morosely. No one talked to him anymore.

What Brian hadn’t noticed during his intense study was how the bar had quieted and the music didn’t seem as loud. He hadn’t realized what was happening until a figure took the seat in front of him and a body was pushing him over as it sat next to him.

When he saw their faces, he nearly groaned aloud.

“Fuck,” Brian muttered under his breath.

He stole a glance at the blond on his left, then took a look at the darker-haired man in front. They were much older than the last photos he’d seen, but still appeared as agile and fit as they’d been back in the day.

“Brian Gamble,” the dark-haired one said. He reached for a pretzel and broke it in half before tossing a piece in his mouth. “What’s a beach-bum low-life like you doing in a New York dump like this?”

“Minding my own fucking business?” Brian bit out. “You?”

“Well,” the blond started. “It’s hard not to be curious about why someone is interested in dragging out a forty-plus old case of ours.”

Minnie, Brian remembered. Of course, she’d say something. He couldn’t blame her. She probably thought she was helping.

“Wasn’t your jurisdiction then and it sure as hell ain’t now,” Brian reminded them. He took a pull from his beer and let himself smirk at them. “Retirement does that.”

“We make it our business when a piece of shit ex-cop and ex-spook gets his fingers in places they don’t belong,” the dark-haired one said as he took Brian’s beer and handed it off to a passing waitress. “With your record, anything you touch won’t be worth a damn thing. We can make sure of that.”

“Guess we’ll see about that,” Brian shot back.

“We will,” the blond promised.

Before Brian could leave, the dark-haired one leaned towards him.

“Your whole Montel party is common knowledge. Maybe your new friends and Jim Street needs to know about the op with Byers where a convoy of refugees were blown to kingdom come by your hand.”

Brian stilled. He’d tossed his weapons down in front of Byer afterwards and left the country. It was how he found himself back at Minnie’s bar drinking a bottle of Wild Turkey. That was the last thing he remembered before waking up on her couch.

Brian pushed the blond out and escaped the bar remembering why his coming had been a bad idea to begin with.

~*~

Phil Coulson had little hope that their investigation was going much farther. It was large enough that the trails could lead to almost any direction. He made his focus on the one person they knew the least about, Dr. Dan Hillcott. He’d been a Stanford researcher before going to Ft. Detrick. That was a lot of ground to cover during a time when tracking could be near impossible.

Marta Shearing was an enormous help since she knew Hillcott’s work the best. With Skye’s help, they were starting to raise some interesting questions. It all focused on trips the scientist had made in the latter 70’s to Los Angeles to consult.

“This first one,” Marta pointed to on the screen above the worktable in Tony’s lab. “March 1976. Dr. Hillcott was brought in to examine the remaining contents of a syringe. A police officer was poisoned with a group of organic compounds. Any normal person would have died well within the 24-hour time period he was given.”

“Was he mutant?”

“Not as far as I can tell with these results,” Marta said. She swiped at a screen and a new one popped up with computer generated DNA strands.

It was all foreign to Phil. “What am I looking at?”

“The genes were able to fight the poison long enough to buy more time for an anecdote, almost identical to the Ft. Detrick experiments. If it had been some sort of pathogen, this police officer would have been infecting and killing everyone around him.”

“And Hillcott saw it.” Phil now realized they were getting close. “So it’s him?”

“I may be able to determine that with what we’ve gathered so far,” Marta answered. “Dr. Hillcott might have experimented with other subjects as well.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Skye brought up another file for everyone to see. “There was a small pandemic in 1977 which nearly killed his partner. There are notes signed off by Hillcott.”

Marta read through them. “Once they found a carrier it was easily eradicated all the way to the source. Hillcott consulted on the genetic characteristics of the disease.”

“It might have piqued his interest since these two were partners,” Phil observed. “What about this recovery?”

Marta shook her head. “It’s no different than the other patients afflicted. He was cured with no ill effects.” Then something caught her eye. “My god.”

“What?” Phil moved closer. “What did you find?”

“The partner was tested for this disease and Dan Hillcott signed out a blood sample for transport back to Stanford.”

“Why?” Skye asked. “He never got sick.”

“For that very reason,” Marta said with a near sense of wonder in her voice.

Then it hit Phil. “They were partners, day in and day out. Hillcott wanted to know why he never contracted it.”

“He would have gotten his answer, too.” Marta turned to Phil. “These men could answer a lot of questions, Phil.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

The lab door slid open and Jim Street strode through the room. “Brian isn’t answering his phone. Anyone know where he’s at?”

“Something wrong?” Skye asked.

Phil walked over to Jim and pulled him aside.

“There’s more to it, isn’t there?”

“A friend of ours called me last night. She’d talked with him, but wouldn’t let me in on what it was about. She’s like a mother to him and I didn’t push. Brian’s had a tough time since coming back and…”

“You’re concerned he’d run.”

“He doesn’t think he’s worth it and the wrong push could send him back out in the cold again, Coulson. This time I’m not sure I could get him back.”

Phil nodded. This was something he could well understand. It reminded him of Clint’s early days when he struggled with his own dark sins of the past.

“Jarvis,” Phil said. “Can you locate Brian Gamble?”

“His cellular phone’s GPS is disengaged and no calls have been made that I can detect.”

“Damn it,” Jim breathed.

“Let’s get everyone together. We’ll find him,” Phil reassured Jim.

~*~

It hadn’t taken long for Brian to find this spot. It was an area of Central Park called Conservatory Garden. He loved the quiet beauty and had found a place under a tree where few could see him unless they were really looking. Brian would take a seat on the ground, lean against the tree and relaxed with a sigh.

This time, however, he sought it for escape and not just the solitude where he could be alone with his thoughts. Having five brothers in his life was overwhelming and after feeling alone most of his life, he was still adjusting. Panic would hit him and he could feel himself choking on it at the thought of it all.

But then when he thought about having brothers, their significant others and their children, he grinned at the thought. He loved the idea of holidays and vacations together.

Brian shook his head. No, that wasn’t possible. He had so much shit in his past and it wasn’t even that much in the past either. He’d never been punished for the things he’d done.

Looking at his phone and thinking of the notes, Brian realized that it was likely he wouldn’t be believed, especially if the truth of his wrongs came to light. It wouldn’t make a difference in the entirety of this investigation.

There were no indications of the so-called Survivor’s identity, most were dead by now and even those that had played a large role saw him as nothing more than the ex-cop who had turned on his brothers-in-arms and lived the life of an assassin and covert operative for the CIA. On top of that he was at the heart of the horror inflicted on his new family and their mother.

It was over. Brian was walking away before anyone else got hurt. He took out his cellphone and pulled up the notes. He’d have it all deleted.

“Brian?”

Brian jerked around and he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Steve Rogers, Captain fucking America standing a few yards away.

“What…how did you find me?”

Steve smiled a little, walked over and sat on the ground next to Brian.

“Jim was worried about you. It’s all hands-on deck. Everyone is looking for you.”

“But…”

“I come here sometimes when I need the outdoors and some quiet,” Steve admitted. “I know you’ve been to Central Park a few times so I took a chance.”

“Good call.” Brian debated on whether or not to stay.

“How about I let everyone know you’re okay and I’ll leave you alone?”

When Steve started to move, Brian grabbed his arm. “No, wait.”

“Want to talk about what’s eating you?”

Brian let go and sighed. “I don’t know. Hell, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing or thinking most of the time.”

“Sometimes it’s just easier to act on your gut.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if it’s right or not.”

“Without knowing what’s going on, I’ll say you won’t know until after the fact.” Steve huffed a laugh. “And it doesn’t help you much.”

“I was going to leave here and run.”

“Maybe you should,” Steve offered.

“The fuck!” Brian was floored. He nearly smiled. “This coming from Captain perfect America?”

Steve did laugh then. “Please don’t call me perfect. Sometimes the first reaction is the right one.”

“Well, it’s not my first.” Brian sighed. “I got some information about this whole thing we’ve all been working on. I was going to take it straight over.”

“What stopped you?”

“Me,” Brian admitted. “They – my brothers – are going to know the things I’ve done. I mean worse than breaking a drug kingpin out of police custody.” He took another look at his phone. “Shitty things.”

“You think they’ll see you differently enough that they won’t trust this information you have.”

“Not only that, the people that tell them are fucking heroes, respected and…”

“Yeah, I get what you’re saying.” Steve shifted around to face Brian. “Before you make a decision, there are some things you should know.”

“Sure.”

“The war was only a few years ago for me so I usually go to sleep with the memories most nights. My team and I did some things…we accomplished our missions. Innocent people died. It goes with the territory, but there were missions where we knew ahead of time. You get the idea, right?”

“If anyone found out it could ruin things for you, couldn’t it?”

“Maybe.” Steve rubbed his chin. “In today’s world there are things like Twitter and Facebook where news travels fast. Information trends which I’m still trying to understand. I won’t be surprised if some of it comes out. I decided a while ago that I can’t run from the things I’ve done in my past.”

“You think that’s what I should do? Stay, I mean.”

“I’m not you. All I can tell you is that I’ve got a team beside me now that won’t judge me or things I’ve done. They’ll stand by me no matter what.”

“I couldn’t take the look in their eyes,” Brian confessed. “It’s fucking scary as shit, you know. I’m willing to fight, you know, but I couldn’t take Jim or the others…”

“Jim cares about you and I’d call him a safe bet. I’ve known Clint for a while and he’s not one to let go easy of those he cares about. The rest…well, from what I’ve seen, they’re a lot like Clint in ways. Not sure if you could get out of Manhattan without at least one of them knowing it.”

“Probably right. Will hacked into all the cameras in a twenty-block radius of Stark Tower.” Brian grinned a little at Steve.

Steve got to his feet and held out his hand. He helped Brian to his feet.

“Trust them. They won’t let you down.”


End file.
